Bridge Cafe is an historic restaurant and bar located at 279 Water Street in the South Street Seaport area of Manhattan, NYC. The site was originally home to “a grocery and wine and porter bottler”, opened in 1794, and has been home to a series of drinking and eating establishments. In the nineteenth century the building was described in city directories variously as a grocery, a porterhouse, or a liquor establishment. Henry Williams operated a brothel there from 1847 to 1860 and the prostitutes were listed in the New York City census of 1855. In 1888, the building’s exterior was altered to its present form. It is the city’s oldest continuous business establishment and has been under its current ownership since 1979.

Bridge Cafe—as well as the rest of the building—was damaged during Hurricane Sandy and the restaurant has been closed ever since. Repair work is almost complete and Bridge Cafe plans to re-open in…